Chapter Sixteen
Hudson
Just like her emails from her undergraduate days, Briar’s mind continued to fascinate Hudson. After so many years hiding what had truly been his life’s work, it was thrilling to speak of it openly. Not only did he have Briar’s astonishing brain pondering the same questions he did, but Marcus’s.
His brother may joke, as he had been by teasing about his lab at Harvard, but it was subterfuge. Marcus wanted to help. He wanted to contribute.
It was the same with Valen and Sylvain. They hadn’t spent years learning about biology and chemistry, but they’d spent years learning how to fight. Yet, he hadn’t included them in battle strategy, nor had he included them in his work studying their condition.
It was time for that to change. All of them were smart men. Together, they could make much more headway on their problems than if they acted alone.
“Briar brought up a good point,” he said, turning in his seat to better see Valen, Sylvain, and Briar. He glanced down at Briar’s hands, wrapped tightly around Sylvain’s, and felt a pang of jealousy. He should have chosen the back over the front seat. “I’ve been focusing on one symptom of our condition, the inability to walk in sunlight. Marcus has been working on another, the need to drink blood to survive. But we’ve never put together all of our symptoms and looked at is as a whole. Nor have we talked about the earlier days of our transformation—”
“Beyond the bloodlust,” Briar interrupted. She shrunk a little in her seat when Hudson frowned. Bloodlust wasn’t something he wanted to think about when her delicious scent was filling the car. And beneath her sunlight and heat scent, somewhere on her body was a trace of blood left by Valen’s fangs.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It wasn’t you. I was thinking of something else.”
“Oh.” She sat a little straighter and continued. “You mentioned the bloodlust. Time going by without realizing what you were doing. It sounded almost like a fever. And then there are the crawlers. The ones where something went wrong. And the soldiers, who are easily controlled.”
“One variable at a time!” Marcus laughed. “You’re describing years of research. Let’s focus on the one question you’ve given us. Are our symptoms genetic mutations we can identify on our chromosomes?”
“Yes,” she agreed as they sped down the street.
Hudson glanced out the window. This time of night, it wouldn’t take Marcus long to get to Boston College.
“Oh, no!”
Hudson whirled in his seat at Briar’s outburst. She glanced down at her clothes and back up. “I forgot everything. My hat. Gloves.”
“You’ll be safe in my lab,” Hudson said. “We can stay there from now, through the day, into the evening if we must. Though, an easier solution would probably be sending one of us back to the house for your protective clothing.”
“I’ve been trying so hard to remember,” Briar said. “I got caught up.”
She bit her lip. Hudson was about to reach back to tug it from between her teeth, but Valen beat him to it. “Don’t worry, little one. As soon as you are settled, I will run back to the house. It won’t take a moment.”
She leaned on his shoulder and nodded. Before twisting back toward the windshield, Hudson met Valen’s gaze and was struck by the wonder and joy in his brother’s eyes. Was the same thing reflected in his own?
Marcus put the car in park, and they tumbled out of it like excited puppies. Briar bounced around them, but Hudson wasn’t listening to her words anymore. He was following the lilting melody of her voice. Even with the breeze, and the lingering scents of a hundred humans, Briar’s heat and sunshine scent overpowered everything.
Taste her.
She had offered. More than offered, she’d given Valen permission to drink from her. As he followed her into the building and down the stairs toward his lab, he remembered how she’d tasted when he kissed her and how soft she’d been beneath his fingertips.
What a gift this woman was.
Distracted, he swiped his identification over the keypad and entered his code. He pushed the door open and growled.
Rot. Decay.
He hit the light next to the door, and it revealed what he suspected—what he hadn’t noticed because he’d been reminiscing about Briar’s body—a slime trail.
Crawlers had been here.
“We all missed it.” Sylvain spun and strode down the hall, Valen following a second later. If they were still here, his brothers would find them.
Hudson drew in a breath. Only one crawler. The trail glittered like a prism, so it was easy for him to follow the path the creature took. It had opened drawers, slid over his chair, and gone to his refrigeration unit, where he kept blood samples.
He opened it and saw exactly what he expected. All of the samples he’d kept cold, vials of his blood, of his brothers’ blood, of Briar’s blood, were gone. Taken.
It must have been difficult for the creature to take those vials without breaking them open and draining the contents. But then again, they were Asher’s only sentient minions. They would understand the consequences if they failed him. A soldier on the other hand may not have been able to resist the temptation.
“Someone broke in?” Briar asked. Her human eyes would not have been able to make out the trails that gave away the crawlers presence. “What did they take?”
“Blood samples,” Hudson answered. The trail went over his chair toward his computer. He touched it with a finger, pulling it away with a tail of mucus. He’d need to replace the keyboard. Wiping his hands on his pants, he walked over to his supply cabinet. Inside were gloves, and he pulled them over his hands. Maybe he drank blood, but slime was gross, and he didn’t want to touch it.
Gloves on, he hit a key on the keyboard, and the screen glowed to life. He was ready to enter his password, but what came on the screen was not the option to write his admin password.
It was one of his reports, the one he’d written describing what he’d found on Briar’s chromosomes. He’d only written it for himself, a series of question and answers he’d made to guide his thought process. But it wasn’t meant to be shared. Not with a creature loyal to Asher, and especially not with Asher himself.
“Your work?” Briar asked, glancing over his shoulder. Hudson looked back at her and caught Marcus’s gaze. His brother stood sentry by the door, hands loose next to his legs. Anyone who didn’t know Marcus would think he was relaxed, but he wasn’t. Human eyes wouldn’t catch the way he stayed on the balls of his feet, fingers slightly clawed. His fangs, white and sharp, were visible as he panted through his mouth, sucking in the air and tasting it for any foreign scents.
“Hudson.” Briar’s voice made him meet her glare. “Hudson. Talk to me, please.”
“Do you smell that?” he asked.
Her small nostrils flared as she breathed in, and her face whitened. “How did I miss it?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “It smells like worms.”
“Worms?” he asked. He’d never put his face next to an earthworm, so he couldn’t say for sure.
“The way it smells after a heavy rain. You walk outside and all the earthworms have escaped from their little flooded tunnels. It smells like that.”
“Huh.” She was right; it was analogous to the smell the crawler left. “It was a crawler,” Hudson said. “This?” He held up his glove and rubbed the fingers together to show the slime between his fingertips. “This is the trail they make when they travel.”
“It must make it easy to track them.” She glanced toward Marcus and the door.
“If it is still nearby, Valen and Sylvain will find it,” he agreed.
Briar shivered and touched her neck, cupping it with her palm. “Slime.” She dropped her hand and crossed her arms. “So do we wait? Or do we work?”
“We wait until Valen and Sylvain give us the all clear,” Marcus answered from the doorway. “If they find the crawler, they’ll kill it and return here. Then we leave.”
“We’re probably safer here than we are out there,” Briar mused. She turned slowly, examining the walls and vents. She walked from Hudson to the wall to thump with her knuckles. “It’s just as likely to keep something out as your house. And at least here there aren’t windows.”
“Fair enough,” Hudson answered. “But in all honesty, I’ll have a hard time wrapping my brain around genetics right now.” With that, he pulled the keyboard off the computer and dumped it in a nearby garbage can. Then he peeled off his gloves and threw them in as well.
“I understand.” Briar sighed and sat on a rolling chair. She spun on the seat before kicking against the floor to propel toward one wall. “You said crawlers are intelligent. So they choose to follow Asher?”
“They aren’t intelligent like we are,” Marcus said. “That came out wrong. I mean—they retain self-control, but not a sense of self. They lose who they were.”
“Are you certain?” Briar asked. She spun in the chair, kicked off the floor again and rolled toward the computer. Once there, she pointed at the screen. “Because this certainly seems like the work of an intelligent creature. What did you use crawlers for when you were with Asher?”
“Reconnaissance, mostly,” Marcus answered. “Torture, because of their venom, but that only worked on humans.”
“You tortured humans?” Briar asked, and Hudson saw his brother clench his jaw.
“I did a lot of things I’m not proud of,” he answered.
“Okay.” Briar stood and brushed her hands over her pants like she was dusting herself off. “Let’s get this out in the open.”
“Get what out in the open?” Marcus asked.
Hudson smiled, gaze bouncing between his brother and the woman he loved. That girl had been waiting for her opportunity to call Marcus on the carpet about his behavior the other day. And now she was doing it.
“You said I didn’t know you. And then you tried to tell me I wouldn’t love you after I knew what you’d done. So let me tell you what I think you’ve done.” Her voice hardened, all trace of smiles gone from her sunny face. Her scars stood stark against her skin, red and angry. She swept a trembling hand through her hair and gathered it over her shoulder. “I think you’ve killed people. Humans. I think when you were controlled by bloodlust, you killed indiscriminately, and you can’t remember all their faces, but the ones you can remember haunt you.”
Marcus stared down at her as she approached him, his face devoid of expression.
“I think you killed vampires, maybe humans too, in the heat of battle. I think you were cruel at times because you were stronger, faster, smarter.”
Her voice began to tremble, and her sunshine scent blossomed. Hudson took a step toward her. Marcus’s expression hadn’t changed, except his eye twitched, a small spasm that gave away just how hard it was for him to keep himself together.
“I think when you finally cleared your mind of bloodlust and Asher’s control, you were horrified by your past. It tore you apart.”
Next to his legs, Marcus’s hands twitched and Hudson leapt between the two of them. If he was struggling with his control, Hudson would keep Briar safe. Marcus hissed, showing Hudson his fangs, but he didn’t make a move toward her. A soft hand touched his shoulder, urging him to the side.
“I’m fine, Hudson,” she said. But he didn’t want to move. Every word out of Briar’s mouth described not only Marcus’s past, but his own. Without knowing exactly what it was they’d done, she’d summarized his entire two thousand year existence. Marcus’s green eyes rose to meet his, revealing the torture each statement inflicted.
“Marcus.” Briar stood between them now and reached for Marcus’s face. She held it between her palms and stood on her tiptoes, gently kissing his lips. Hudson couldn’t help himself, he moved closer, crowding her body with his. His hands went to her hips, and he dropped his forehead to her shoulder. She smelled so good. “Marcus,” she whispered, “I love you. I love the man you are, and you never would have become him without the past you lived. And without your vampire. So guess what? I love him, too.”
With a groan, Marcus lunged for her. He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her off the floor to hold her closer. Hudson let her go, but still he reached for her. When Hudson touched her side, Briar took his hand with one of hers. She squeezed him as tightly as he saw her holding Marcus, as if she knew she’d spoken to both their fears.
“I love you,” Marcus whispered into her neck.
A burst of sunshine and heat filled the room, and Briar sighed. “I love you, too. I love all of you. And nothing you could do would change that. Nothing you’ve done, will change that. Do you understand?” Briar squeezed Hudson’s hand, driving the statement home.
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Marcus repeated and let her slide from his arms. For a second, his brother met his gaze, and Hudson smiled, understanding the unspoken message.
He moved closer, gripped Briar’s hips, and tugged her against his chest at the same time Marcus crowded her. His brother bent his head, capturing Briar’s mouth with his own. Hudson traced her neck with his lips, allowing his teeth to graze her skin.
She threaded her hand through his hair, holding him in place as Marcus continued his onslaught. He heard her heart speed up as her hand clenched in his hair. Flexing his hips into her backside, he groaned. Her body was soft against his hard, and so responsive. At once, she arched back into him, all the while his brother continued to kiss her.
Through the haze of his arousal, he made out footsteps hurrying down the hall and forced himself to step away. Briar let him, though she stretched her arm toward him, searching for his hand. He gave it to her. When Marcus finally lifted his head, she stumbled, and he caught her.
“Do you understand now?” she asked, peering over her shoulder at him before back to Marcus.
“Yes,” they answered in unison, and she giggled.
“Finally,” she answered.